According to Statista 2021, the projected market size of the hotel and resort industry worldwide in 2021 will top $1.22 trillion, down only slightly from its 2018 record high of $1.24 trillion. Despite these near-record numbers, hotels worldwide are rethinking many of their designed features in response to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing awareness around such issues as systemic inequalities, the ever-increasing influence of social media, and ongoing concerns with climate change and environmental impacts of businesses worldwide.
Not surprisingly, several of the top hospitality design trends for 2021 reflect these concerns:
- More personalized designs and experiences
- Smart technologies in rooms
- Business centers that cater to millennial travelers
- Making the hotel design suitable for Instagram photos
- Eco-friendly design
- Preparing business guests for more extended stays (also known as bleisure travel)
- Redesign of hotel lobbies.
Quiet Earth Moss offers fully customizable design solutions to meet many of these trends while keeping an eye on renovation budgets and the ever-increasing pressure of bottom-line profitability.
Eco-Friendly Design
Eco-friendly, green, and bibliophilic design practices have been trending strongly in design and construction for some time, and the hotel industry is paying attention. New buildings are being planned with LEED scores in mind, while renovations focus on sustainable and easily installed products. Gone are the days of a few straggly low-maintenance plants scattered around a hotel lobby, use of low-energy lightbulbs, and simple recycling. Today, the trend is to toward a much more holistic integration of as many benefits of nature as possible into hotel environments, from interior walls transformed by greenery and cascading natural light to full and flourishing rooftop gardens.
Made from 100-percent natural moss cultivated and harvested according to ecological best practices, Quiet Earth Moss is preserved with natural oil that mimics the look of water. The moss appears alive and can maintain a natural appearance for years to come with relatively maintenance-free; simple vacuum or dust to restore its natural beauty. Our moss is non-allergenic, requires no watering, and is perfect for areas of a hotel that has no natural light.
Available in a range of hues that help designers create an interior color palette that emphasizes greens and blues, preserved moss products are treated with natural food dyes. It can be used alone in a single-moss accent wall or combined in a custom moss installation that creates repetitions and patterns that mimic those found in the natural world. As biophilic designers know (and science supports), green is globally associated with emotional responses like calm, peace, and tranquillity.
Preserved moss products also provide natural acoustic dampening, reducing noise levels in public spaces like hotel lobbies and corridors. that studies have shown as one of the primary sources of stress within more work environments. According to researchers from the Centre for Architectural Ecology at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), preserved moss combined with ezoBord backing has a sound absorption value (AW) of 0.96. This number means that a preserved moss acoustic panel absorbs sound at the same rate as a standard commercial carpet with underlay. And quiet will be a selling point for hotels in moving forward, explains Robert J. Gdowski, Director of Hospitality Design for JCJ Architecture:
We will see the emphasis placed on experiences that promote self-presence, self-awareness, and self-appreciation. All this rides on the established trend of authentic, genuine experiences that the industry has been nurturing throughout the past several years. This will be a much-needed silencing of the design noise that has layered up over time, noise that has often over-stimulated and distracted us from our ability to find genuine connectivity within ourselves.
Welcoming guests to a natural, biophilic experience, preserved moss is also a cost-effective component of any hotel renovation or design. Weighing only a fraction (about 25 percent) of traditional living walls or large plant displays, preserved moss walls are easy to install, and because they never require watering or light, there are no costly infrastructure retrofits required.
Making the hotel design suitable for Instagram photos
As BCI notes, “social media marketing is essential for the hospitality and lodging industries. As a result, many of the top hotels are starting to design their hotels in ways that make them perfect Instagram photo moments.”
With a catalog that includes:
- Acoustic wall panels
- Decorative moss mosaics
- Moss geo frames
- 3-dimensional moss panel designs
- Moss planters
Quiet Earth Moss can also be customized to create stunning, Instagram-friendly indoor spaces that will make hashtags more important than ever when building a hotel’s marketing strategy. Looking to rejuvenate a hotel’s out-of-date registration desk? Branded moss walls provide a beautiful and subtle way to ensure that your brand becomes part of every guest’s “Checking in! It’s fabulous” social media post.
With five moss types to choose from, Quiet Earth Moss can help your design team create features from subtle to dramatic, multi-layered, and multi-textured combinations. Interested in a piece of custom-framed preserved moss wall art? Quiet Earth Moss Quiet begins with custom-designed frames made from 4 types of material:
- ezoBord (made from recycled plastic bottles)
- wood
- metal
We then work directly with your design team to bring your vision to life, using any combination of:
- 6 different moss textures, heights, and natural patterns
- Thicknesses ranging from ½” to a full 3”
- 19 different moss colors
- 30 different ezoBord frame colors.
Each piece is custom-made from natural moss, ensuring that every work of art is unique with its intriguing showcase of intricacies and irregularities.
And installers love Quiet Earth Moss custom-framed pieces. Screw your custom-framed moss wall art directly to drywall or plywood, or have it suspended from the ceiling. Weighing as little as 1.5 pounds per square foot, these wholly custom pieces are a fraction of the weight of a living plant installation and require no special infrastructure for light or watering.
Conclusion
As Griz Dwight, founder of GrizForm Design Architects, noted in a recent article in Forbes magazine, 2021 will be a pivotal year for the hotel industry:
The hospitality industry has been hit hard. However, with the positive news that a vaccine is well on its way, we will see a big boom for the industry in 2021. From hotels to restaurants, we will see more open floor plans, open-air spaces, high ceilings, outdoor areas, and operable walls. Guests no longer want to be packed into a tight space. We will also see more biophilic elements incorporated throughout hospitality spaces, offering guests the sense of being outdoors. The main goal for any hotelier and restaurant owner is to provide guests with a great experience in a space that feels safe and comfortable.
Quiet Earth Moss is a natural choice for hoteliers looking to renovate or rejuvenate their public or private spaces. Eco- and design-friendly, preserved moss helps create the perfect environment for the current and future generation of travelers for whom experience and environmental sustainability are not just buzzwords but a way of life
At Quiet Earth Moss, we are very much aware of Biophilic practices’ benefits and its growing prominence as a design standard. Therefore, we offer a wide range of Preserved moss wall options and a rich portfolio of moss wall designs, wall art, geometrically shaped frames, highlight features, and company logo options. Add any of these selections alone or in combination and transform your workplace into a contemporary, healthy, and sustainable green space.